PagesPat's Ponderings

Friday, July 31, 2009

It'sa seems like it's been forever since I scrapped a layout. My photos are sitting in the desktop computer downstairs, but it's sitting by itself pouting. It's working, the monitor is working, but there is no video feed going to the monitor. And the monitor works on another computer, so my son has pulled the video card from its guts (*minor surgery) and we may have to order online for a new one. Meanwhile, most of the photos I want to scrap are stuck in limbo on the desktop and I can't get to them--ugh! So I guess I'll be forced to scrap my older, paper photos (gasp).These photos were taken with my Blackberry. I like the quality of the photos, altho they're not as sharp as my camera obviously.

My daughter is 14 and CRAZY for Hello Kitty. I received some diecuts from a scrapping friend on Scrapbook Place Yahho Group and decided to make her a card. Since I was scoring and cutting trifold shutter cards for another buddy, I made it into the shutter card you see here. I know, so many trifold shutter cards, and I promise to show my other work, but I've been creating these cards like crazy. I think my next Rain cards on Magnolia-licious Yahoo Group will be the trifolds as well.On a side note, I received a Sizzix Sidekick as a PIF on SBP group and my first die is the new Hello Kitty. Wendy is at my side, waiting to try it out. I may have to give up my Sidekick to her!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Now this is not my ortiginal idea, I scraplifted from another crafter's blog, but I haven't been able to find her again. And I've been asked how to make them, so here's my first ever tutorial. Start with a pice of patterned paper 4"x8" and FOLD in half.

Cut on the diagonal so that you have three pieces: your folded triangle and two extra triangles (you can use these on another project or if the paper is two-sided, use the other side to embellish your bookmark).

Adher the other side of the right triangle, leaving the long side open to slip over the corner of a page (I zip my Tombow down the side, but with only half on the paper so that the seal is skinnier).

Decorate at will, but remember it will slip into your book, so keep it as flat as you can.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I made this card as a personal challenge from a dear crafting buddy, Linda, as well as my own failure to use a cricut-cut image as the main image on a card. I love the Indie Arte cartridge, and made this 3D strawberry earlier this week. When Linda's envie of goodies arrived, she had included some strawberry stamped images as well as the sentiment seen on my card. I don't know who made the stamps or sentiment. I "framed" the Cricut strawberry on the card, and colored the smaller strawberry image and sentiment with copics. The shiny strawberry is done with Liquid Glass, and I added a few dots of red Stickles on the patterned paper.Thanks Linda--like the card says, "You're the berry best"!

Monday, July 20, 2009

I just received the new Indie Arte Cricut cartridge today. It was waiting for me to pounce on it, and pounce I did. The images you can cut from this cartridge is so totally now, like motorcycle momma cute. Here are just a couple 3D paper piecings I made from the Cricut. I know, I know, where does the motorcycle momma come into play? Wait til you see the other images you can cut! I ran out of time and had to start making dinner or the natives would have overrun the village. I didn't change out of my work clothes, went straight to my craft room and started playing with my new toy!I even left the box from Zappo's go unopened until after supper, and I've been anxiously awaiting its arrival. I bought two new pairs of Keen sandals online, then had to exchange them for a smaller size. Anyone want great customer service, order from Zappo's. They scored all ten's as far as I'm concerned!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I made a card kit for a crafting friend. I cut and scored six pieces of cardstock to make the shutter cards, colored images of Tilda and Whiff of Joy, added patterned paper and embellies, and then pout one together for her. I hope she'll like the package I created for her!

Here's the finished card fully open. I like it just as much as when the card is closed. Now that I'm practicing with my copics, I find I am in need of still more shades of colors! This week my lss is offering a Basics of Copic Coloring class and I think I'll take it--especially since I still haven't got the knack of using that darn blender pen!!

My daughter loves these cards. She wants me to make a couple Hello Kitty ones. If I get to them, I'll post those, too.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Remember when PBA's were all the rage? Are they still in??? No matter, I love making them. Here's one that I made for one of our teachers. She had a little girl named Violet. I found out that all her children have Disney character names.

There's Jasmine, Sebastian, Diego and now little Violet. If I had known her better, I would have made her a Disney-themed baby PBA. Next time I give out one of these beauties, I'll find out a little more about the family.

The page above uses teddy bears that were embossed on a 12x12 piece of patterned paper. I didn't get to use it as background paper--the teddy bears were too cute so I cut them all out!

There's plenty of room for photos, as well as journaling tags in the "pockets" of each layout. There are more pages of course, but these are my faves.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

I am an admitted paperholic, so when I used a small portion of some patterned paper last week, I put the leftover pieces in a pile on top of my desk. When I got a chance to create this weekend, I used up all the leftover paper on these six cards. Above is a stamped image of Edwin from Magnolia. I colored him with copics and glitzed his shoes and wings with Liquid Glass. I put him on a log and tried to make the embellishments simple and boyish.

On these cards I used stamped images I received in a swap or RAK, and would love to know where they came from--aren't they cute?! I think I have almost enough birthday cards for my Gram's Christmas package--I make birthday cards for every member of the family for her and put them in chronological order with their names written BIG on the envies. (What else can you give a 99 year old for Christmas?)

I love this mouse. The sentiment inside the card goes with it and says "Flat out wishing you a Happy Birthday". I got this mystery image from another crafter and don't know who makes the stamp, but it's a favorite of mine now!

Bella is over for the weekend, which means I'll have plenty of photos to scrap in the next couple of weeks! Have a great week!

Friday, July 10, 2009

No more photos of trifold cards. This is an older layout I did for a paisley and flower challenge. I don't know how well my flowers and paisleys go together, but I love the journaling that was inspired by these photos. Check out how young my daughter was--she's 14 now! Time flies when you have kids.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

I wanted to make a trifold card that was less froufrou and could be given to a boy or girl. I think this works, even though it has a flower or two, they are shaped just a little off from the regular flower pattern to keep the card neutral. The paisley print paper made me think of western theme, but the only stamped images I had like that were this one (the foxes are wearing bandanas). The embellies are mostly metal charms and clips.Now that I've made enough cards for my swaps, I have to once again clean off my craft table (it's like my bed linens-every morning I make it and every night I muss it up!). It seems when the muse hits, I just keep pushing things out of the way (I have a big table). Now that my project is finished, I can't seem to find the energy or creativity to make something new until I can see the top of my table!One suggestion to making these cards more easily---get yourself a ScorPal! I used one from a scrappin' buddy's for my cards (thanks Shelly), and plan to use my Michael's/Joann's/HobbyLobby's/Archiver's coupon to get myself one as well. You can score a bunch of cards in five minutes or less!

This is the third card I made for the swap. As you can see by comparing the other two posted, I'm getting more daring and filling up the card more fully. The sentiment on the front is cricut-cut, the stamp is Stampin Up (I believe). The most difficult part now is trying to match up my leftover scraps of paper to each card! And it doesn't look like I've even made a dent in my leftovers! I guess I need to get scrapping!

Well, I finished my tri-fold cards for my LuckyBug Swap. Two of them ended up being made with Tilda images. The swap is for five cards, and I made six. One of the Tilda cards is going to my July Mingle partner on Magnolia-licious Yahoo Group. Here I used Tilda with Birthday Cake, colored her with Copics, added some Liquid Glass for glitz. I had a pile of birthday embellies that I received in a swap so I made a good dent in that pile! The sentiment says "No matter how you spend your day, Hope it's great in every way".

I joined a card swap on LuckyBug Yahoo Group that forced me to learn a new technique in card making. This card is called atri-fold shutter card and I know someone has a blog with a tutorial, but I'm on my work computer right now (shh, don't tell) and don't have that link for you. I'll get it and post another tri-fold card with it.Meanwhile, I am such a Paperholic that I decided to use my scraps for this swap. That means that I don't have enough of one pattern to make the same card twice! So all my tri-fold cards are different. This one is sporting Tilda with a Tag, and I made it into a birthday card. Each card I make has a few more embellishments than the last one, and this was the second card I made. It's easier to cut and fold the card than it is to create the design! That's one perk about making the same card several times, I guess. But my drawers are OVERFLOWING with leftover pieces of paper!! I've got to do something, and this is a start.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

OMG, I am finally able to get on my blog and update. And lucky me, I had some time today to make a card. I used the Limitless Limbs stamp set from Pink Cat Studios, one of my many favorite companies for quality stamps! I stamped the tree on glossy white cardstock, and embellished the limbs with small plastic flowers, popping some of them up with dimensional dots while leaving others flat. The scalloped oval was stamped with a Stampin Up stamp and colored with Copics, my markers of choice as well.Last weekend my family and I were stranded in the bacwoods of Tennessee. No cell signal, iffy internet, restaurants far and few between, and smack in the middle of this trip planned for attending a family wedding, our car broke down. Saturday night, no mechanic to look at the poor thing until Monday morning!Wendy was dropped out of summer school for too many absences because of our misfortune, but her teacher talked with the dean and managed to get her withdrawn with NO grade instead of the normal F a student gets when dropped. She also got us a credit on the second half of the semester, and it's always nice to get a refund!So we had to get towed even further into the deep south, but the town of Corinth was a little bigger, and we got iffy cell phone service, better internet, and lo and behold a real restaurant, Ruby Tuesday's right next to our motel. The car was fixed the next day, and we were never so grateful to get home as we were when we pulled up the driveway Tuesday night at 11 pm!We have come to realize that living outside a big city like Chicago makes us spoiled. Plenty of restaurants, many who deliver, cell coverage almost anywhere, wifi in lots of places--I think it opened the kids' eyes to how good we have it!(The worse news, there was no local scrapbooking store, not even a Michael's or HobbyLobby anywhere in sight--horrors!)So I'm home, my scrap desk is clean enough to work at and summer hours lets me out at 3 pm weekdays! Hopefully you'll be seeing quite a few posts in the upcoming weeks of July!